2015 Western Australian State Redistribution

The WA Boundaries Commission has released its final determination of the new electoral boundaries for the state's 59 Legislative Assembly districts and six Legislative Council regions. The new boundaries will be used at the next state election in March 2017.

The calculations on this page have been double checked since the first version was published on Friday 27 November. Any comments, particularly on transfers of polling places, should be sent to

Background

The Electoral Redistribution Commission was given a difficult task in re-drawing Western Australia's state electoral boundaries. Population growth on the edge of Perth has been enormous, the city being surrounded by a ring of well over-quota seats at the Commission's enrolment base date of 9 March 2015.

All new electorates must be drawn with enrolments within 10% of the state average, 24,923. The published statistics show massive variation in enrolments, from only 9,584 in the northern remote seat of North West Central, to 33,293 in the northern Perth seat of Butler.

Electorates larger than 100,000 square kilometres in area are given a large district allowance, a notional number of voters computed based on electorate size. Even with this allowance, North West Central was calculated to have a notional enrolment of 19,432 before the redistribution, still 22.0% under the state average, while Kalgoorlie (-16.4%) and Eyre (-13.1%) were other remote districts below the permitted than variation from quota.

This contrasts with the task facing the Commissioners in Perth, where from north to south around the city's fringe, Butler was 33.6% over quota, Wanneroo (+9.7%), Swan Hills (+11.9%), West Swan (+17.5%), Darling Range (+12.4%), Southern River (+12.4%), Cockburn (+11.3%), Kwinana (+25.0%) and Warnbro (+23.5%).

Elsewhere within Perth, Fremantle was on +8.6%, Perth (+11.4%) and Belmont (-8.2%). The remaining 29 Perth electorates were all within 5% of the quota.

This inner metropolitan on-quota versus outer metropolitan over-quota geography was impossible to resolve without creating a new Perth electorate. A new seat called Baldivis has been created in Perth's outer southern suburbs, while the south-eastern mining and rural seat of Eyre has been abolished.

While one-vote one-value rules apply to lower house boundaries, upper house regions are heavily biased against Perth, and adding another Perth electorate will further distort the Legislative Council numbers against Perth.

In the lower house metropolitan Perth now has 43 electorates to 16 outside of Perth, reflecting the state's population balance where 75% of voters live in Perth and 25% elsewhere.

In the Legislative Council, Perth is allocated 18 seats and the rest of the state 18 seats. The creation of a new Perth seat and the transfer of areas from Mining and Pastoral to Agricultural Region has further increased the weight of Mining and Pastoral MLCs compared to the average number of votes required to elect MLCs in other regions.

Summary of Political Impact

Liberal

National

Labor

Total

Old Boundaries

31

7

21

59

New Boundaries

32

7

20

59

Some of the key changes in the new boundaries are -

The redistribution has abolished the Liberal seat of Eyre that previously ran from Esperance to Boulder. In its place Kalgoorlie now takes in both Boulder and Kalgoorlie while Esperance is included in the new seat of Roe, which also takes in large parts of the abolished seat of Wagin. Both Roe and Kalgoorlie remain as notional National Party seats.

The south-west seat of Collie-Preston has been re-drawn to take in Donnybrook-Balingup Shire, turning this previously marginal Labor seat into a notional Liberal seat.

The re-arrangement of the boundaries of Labor-held West Swan has wiped out Labor's margin of 1.9% and turned it into a notional Liberal seat.

The Commission initially proposed to use non-geographic names for a number of seats when draft boundaries were released, but has reverted to geographic names at the final stage.

A new notionally Labor seat called Baldivis has been created in southern Perth from parts of Kwinana and Warnbro.

The Liberal seats of Alfred Cove and Bateman have had their previous east-west arrangement re-aligned as north south seats. The Liberal margin for Bateman increases from 17.8% to 23.1%, but the new seat of Bicton has a margin of only 10.0% compared to 23.6% for the abolished seat of Alfred Cove.

Other seats to adopt new names include Thornlie (formerly Gosnells), Burns Beach (formerly Ocean Reef) and Roe replacing the former seats of Wagin and Eyre.

There has been a general counter-clockwise rotation of seats around northern parts of the metropolitan area. Butler in the far north has been diced and spliced, West Swan moves west, while Swan Hills slips out of the hills and becomes an Ellenbrook based seat.

Other seats to see substantial changes in margin include Burns Beach (formerly Ocean Reef Liberal down from 19.0% to 11.3%), Fremantle (Labor margin up from 7.9% to 15.4%), Jandakot (Liberal up from 8.1% to 18.3%), Joondalup (Liberal up from 4.5% to 10.1%), Kwinana (Labor down from 11.8% to 4.3%), Southern River (Liberal down from 17.0% to 10.9%) and Willagee (Labor down from 10.6% to 2.5%).

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New Electoral Pendulum

The electoral pendulum orders seats from the most marginal to safest based on results of the last election adjusted for the redistribution. All margins are shown as two-party preferred contested between Labor and the Liberal or National parties. See table down the page for alternative two-candidate preferred margins.

A change of government at the 2017 election on the old boundaries would have required Labor to win nine seats on a uniform swing of 9.2%. On the new boundaries that becomes 10 seats on a uniform swing of 10.0%.

Liberal/National (32/7)

Electorate

Party and Margin

West Swan

LIB 0.9%

Belmont

LIB 1.0%

Forrestfield

LIB 2.2%

Perth

LIB 2.8%

Collie-Preston

LIB 2.9%

Swan Hills

LIB 3.7%

Morley

LIB 4.7%

Balcatta

LIB 7.1%

Mount Lawley

LIB 8.9%

Bicton

LIB 10.0%

Kalamunda

LIB 10.3%

Joonalup

LIB 10.4%

Southern River

LIB 10.9%

Wanneroo

LIB 11.0%

Burns Beach

LIB 11.3%

Pilbara

NAT 11.5%

North West Central

NAT 11.5%

Murray-Wellington

LIB 12.0%

Bunbury

LIB 12.2%

Riverton

LIB 12.7%

Dawesville

LIB 12.7%

Darling Range

LIB 13.1%

Kingsley

LIB 14.0%

Warren-Blackwood

NAT 15.7%

Hillarys

LIB 16.0%

Kalgoorlie

NAT 16.5%

Scarborough

LIB 17.3%

Jandakot

LIB 18.3%

Carine

LIB 18.3%

Nedlands

LIB 19.1%

Churchlands

LIB 20.0%

South Perth

LIB 20.0%

Cottesloe

LIB 21.1%

Vasse

LIB 21.2%

Central Wheatbelt

NAT 21.5%

Geraldton

LIB 22.8%

Bateman

LIB 23.1%

Moore

NAT 23.2%

Roe

NAT 27.6%

Labor (20)

Electorate

Party and Margin

Midland

ALP 0.5%

Butler

ALP 1.0%

Albany

ALP 1.0%

Thornlie

ALP 1.8%

Cannington

ALP 2.1%

Willagee

ALP 2.5%

Maylands

ALP 2.7%

Girrawheen

ALP 2.8%

Victoria Park

ALP 4.0%

Kwinana

ALP 4.3%

Cockburn

ALP 4.6%

Mirrabooka

ALP 4.6%

Bassendean

ALP 5.1%

Kimberley

ALP 5.1%

Baldivis

ALP 6.4%

Mandurah

ALP 7.7%

Armadale

ALP 9.6%

Warnbro

ALP 10.6%

Rockingham

ALP 13.2%

Fremantle

ALP 15.4%

Summary of Changes to Electorates and Margins

Electorate

Old Margin %

New Margin %

Comments

Albany

ALP 2.0

ALP 1.0

Gains around 700 voters from Wagin, cutting the Labor margin.

Alfred Cove

..

..

See Bicton

Armadale

ALP 9.6

ALP 9.6

Unchanged

Balcatta

LIB 7.3

LIB 7.1

Gains East Hamersley from Girrawheen.

Baldivis

New seat

ALP 6.4

New Labor seat created in Perth's south between Kwinana and Warnbro.

Bassendean

ALP 5.1

ALP 5.1

Largely unchanged

Bateman

LIB 17.8

LIB 23.1

The east-west aligned seats of Alfred Cove and Bateman have been re-arranged as north-south aligned seats. The eastern end of Alfred Cove has been incorporated into Batemanand areas east of the Kwinana Freeway have been transferred to Riverton.

Belmont

LIB 0.9

LIB 1.0

Gains parts of Hazelmere from Midland.

Bicton

LIB 23.6

LIB 10.0

The east-west aligned seats of Alfred Cove and Bateman have been re-arranged as north-south aligned seats. Bicton takes in the western end of Alfred Cove along with Melville from Willagee and East Fremantle from Fremantle. Bicton has a notional Liberal margin of 10.0% compared to 23.6% for Alfred Cove.

Bunbury

LIB 13.1

LIB 12.2

Gains Dalyellup from Collie-Preston in exchange for Clifton Park.

Burns Beach

LIB 19.0

LIB 11.3

New name for Ocean Reef, with major boundary changes as the electorate shifts north, the seat's margin cut by gaining areas from the Labor seat of Butler.

Butler

ALP 1.8

ALP 1.0

Loses Clarkson to Burns Beach and Banksia Grove to West Swan.

Cannington

ALP 2.1

ALP 2.1

Loses some areas to Victoria Park and Thornlie.

Carine

LIB 18.1

LIB 18.3

Largely unchanged.

Central Wheatbelt

NAT 7.9 v LIB

NAT 8.9 v LIB

Expands east and south taking in areas from Eyre and Wagin. This boosts the National margin in the contest versus the Liberal Party, while the Liberal two-party preferred margin versus Labor rises slightly from 21.1% to 21.5%.

Churchlands

LIB 20.2

LIB 20.0

Largely unchanged.

Cockburn

ALP 4.1

ALP 4.6

Loses some southern areas to Kwinana.

Collie-Preston

ALP 0.1

LIB 2.9

Gains Donnybrook-Balingup Shire from Warren-Blackwood along with suburb swaps with Bunbury. These changes convert the seat from marginal Labor to notional Liberal.

Cottesloe

LIB 20.9

LIB 21.1

Largely unchanged.

Darling Range

LIB 15.3

LIB 13.1

Loses Forrestdale area to Jandakot. Gains parts of Sawyers Valley from Swan Hills.

Dawesville

LIB 12.7

LIB 12.7

Unchanged.

Eyre

LIB 0.4 v NAT

..

Abolished. Divided between Central Wheatbelt, Kalgoorlie and Roe.

Forrestfield

LIB 2.1

LIB 2.2

Largely unchanged

Fremantle

ALP 7.9

ALP 15.4

Major changes produced by the re-arrangement of Alfred Cove/Bicton to the north. Loses Liberal voting areas to Bicton and doubles its majority with the transfer of Labor voting territory from Willagee.

Geraldton

LIB 10.9 v NAT

LIB 10.9 v NAT

Unchanged. Liberal 2-party margin versus Labor 22.8%.

Girrawheen

ALP 2.4

ALP 2.8

Loses areas to Balcatta and Kingsley.

Gosnells

..

..

See Thornlie.

Hillarys

LIB 19.0

LIB 16.0

Loses Marmion to Carine and gains Craigie Heights from Joondalup.

Jandakot

LIB 8.1

LIB 18.3

Major re-draw, with Labor-voting areas west of the Kwinana Freeway transferred to Willagee, the southern part of the old seat transferred to Kwinana, while the new boundaries see Jandakot become a safe Liberal seat by extending south-east to take in newer housing areas around Forrestdale.

Joondalup

LIB 4.5

LIB 10.4

Becomes safer for the Liberal Party after changes to boundaries with neighbouring Burns Beach and Hillarys.

Kalamunda

LIB 10.5

LIB 10.3

Loses areas in the south around Maddington to Thornlie. Moves up into the hills gaining Stoneville, Parkerville, Glen Forrest and Mahogany Creek from Swan Hills.

Kalgoorlie

NAT 6.3 v LIB

NAT 3.2 v LIB

Gains Boulder, Kambalda and northern parts of the abolished seat of Eyre. Loses the remote Ngaanyatjarra Council area to North West Central. Liberal 2-party margin versus Labor slips slightly from 16.9% to 16.5%.

Kimberley

ALP 5.1

ALP 5.1

Unchanged.

Kingsley

LIB 14.8

LIB 14.0

Gains the balance of Warwick from Girrawheen.

Kwinana

ALP 11.8

ALP 4.3

Moves north, losing southern areas to the new seat of Baldivis, gaining parts of Cockburn and Jandakot in the north.

Mandurah

ALP 7.7

ALP 7.7

Unchanged.

Maylands

ALP 3.1

ALP 2.7

Minor boundary changes.

Midland

ALP 0.1

ALP 0.5

Minor boundary changes, losing Hazelmere to Belmont.

Mirrabooka

ALP 4.6

ALP 4.6

Unchanged

Moore

NAT 5.9 v LIB

NAT 5.9 v LIB

Unchanged. Liberal two-party preferred margin 23.2%.

Morley

LIB 4.7

LIB 4.7

Unchanged.

Mount Lawley

LIB 9.4

LIB 8.9

Some minor changes with neighbouring Perth and Maylands.

Murray-Wellington

LIB 12.0

LIB 12.0

Unchanged

Nedlands

LIB 19.1

LIB 19.1

Largely unchanged.

North West Central

NAT 9.7 v LIB

NAT 10.5 v LIB

Gains the remote Ngaanyatjarra Council area from Kalgoorlie. Liberal 2-party margin slips from 13.5% to 11.5%.

Ocean Reef

..

..

See Burns Beach.

Perth

LIB 2.6

LIB 2.8

Minor changes only.

Pilbara

NAT 11.5

NAT 11.5

Unchanged.

Riverton

LIB 9.2

LIB 12.7

Strengthened for the Liberal Party as the western boundary extends to the Kwinana Freeway.

Rockingham

ALP 13.2

ALP 13.2

Unchanged

Roe

NAT 26.9 v LIB

NAT 16.7 v LIB

Absorbs much of Wagin plus the Esperance end of the abolished seat of Eyre. The Liberal 2-party margin versus Labor rises from 25.8% to 27.6%.

Massive re-drawing. Loses a string of suburbs in the hills while gaining the balance of Ellenbrook from West Swan.

Thornlie

ALP 2.9

ALP 1.8

Replaces Gosnells, the reduced Labor margin of 1.7% following boundary changes with neighbouring Cannington, Forrestfield, Southern River and Kalmunda.

Vasse

LIB 21.2

LIB 21.2

Only minor boundary changes around Margaret River with Warren-Blackwood.

Victoria Park

ALP 4.1

ALP 4.0

Minor changes.

Wagin

..

..

See Roe.

Wanneroo

LIB 11.1

LIB 11.0

Minor changes

Warnbro

ALP 8.8

ALP 10.6

Loses Baldivis to the new seat of Baldivis.

Warren-Blackwood

NAT 3.1 v LIB

NAT 7.2 v LIB

Strengthened for the Nationals after gaining southern parts of the abolished seat of Wagin. The Liberal 2-party margin versus Labor rises from 15.6% to 15.7%.

West Swan

ALP 1.9

LIB 0.9

Loses Ellenbrook, gains Herne Hill and parts of the Upper Swan valley. Extends north to take Banksia Grove from Butler. The new boundaries see West Swan switch sides on the electoral pendulum, becoming a notional Liberal seat with a margin of 0.9%.

Willagee

ALP 10.6

ALP 2.5

The northern end around Melville is transferred to Bicton. Areas west of Stock Road are moved into Fremantle, while parts of Jandakot and Bateman west of the Kwinana Freeway join the seat. Together these changes lead to a substantial decline in the seat's Labor margin.

Selected Maps

(Note - If the geographic detail does not appear on the maps below, hover your mouse over the map or tap on the map and the detail will load.)

Albany

Albany has expanded, gaining the Shire of Jerramungup from Wagin, cutting the Labor margin from 2.0% to 1.0%.

The Re-drawing of Alfred Cove

The electorate of Alfred Cove has existed since 1996, when it was created to take in the Swan River frontage of the abolished electorates of Melville and Applecross. The proposed boundaries propose to abolish the east-west aligned Alfred Cove and replaces it with Bicton in the west, with Bateman now extending north to the Swan River and taking in eastern parts of Alfred Cove.

Baldivis and Kwinana

The new seat of Baldivis has been created in the outer parts of southern Perth from parts of Kwinana and Warnbro. As a result, Kwinana now extends further north taking in southern parts of Cockburn and Jandakot.

Bunbury

Two changes with Collie-Preston, gaining Dalyellup to the south and losing parts of Australind to the north.

Burns Beach

Moves north, losing southern areas to Joondalup while gaining parts of Butler and changing name from Ocean Reef to Burns Beach.

Butler

Well over quota on the old boundaries, Butler has shed substantial areas to Burns Beach to the south while losing less populated areas to Wanneroo.

Cannington

Central Wheatbelt

Collie-Preston

When drawing electoral boundaries in the south-west of Western Australia, a dilemma is always presented in trying to decide which areas to include in a single electorate with the town of Collie. Before one-vote one-value boundaries were introduced, Collie and nearby rural councils contained enough voters for a single seat. One-vote one-value boundaries saw the seat extended north-west for the 2008 election to become Collie-Wellington, while in 2008 it moved towards Bunbury and the south-west to become Collie-Preston. The draft boundaries had proposed extending the electorate into Busselton, but the final boundaries have taken a less radical approach in transferring the Donnybrook-Balingup council area from Warren-Blackwood.

Darling Range

Remains a bits and pieces electorate, losing the new housing estates around Forrestfield while gaining areas in the far south of the metropolitan area, and along the Great Eastern Highway on the eastern edge of the metropolitan area.

Eyre, Kalgoorlie, Roe, Wagin

The Goldfields seat of Eyre previously include both Boulder and Esperance. The new boundaries abolish Eyre. Boulder and areas stretching to the South Australian border have been included in an expanded Kalgoorlie. Esperence has been placed in a re-created seat of Roe that also includes Katanning and Narrogin from the abolished seat of Wagin. The changed boundaries are shown in the map below and you can click the boundaries on and off using the check boxes in the top right of the map.

Fremantle

The Labor margin in Fremantle increases from 7.9% to 15.4% as Liberal voting areas in East Fremantle are transferred to Bicton while Labor voting territory is moved into the electorate from Willagee.

Jandakot

The creation of Baldivis further south and the growth of new suburbs in the Armadale corridor has abolished and re-aligned the electorate based on Jandakot Airport. Area west of the Kwinana Freeway have been combined with parts of Willagee. Areas south of the airport have been transferred to Kwinana, while Jandakot now extends south-east of the airport.

Joondalup

Kalamunda

Midland

Labor's most marginal seat is strengthened slightly, but the increase is only from 0.1% to 0.5%.

Riverton

The seat of Treasurer Mike Nahan is strengthened gaining Bull Creek from Bateman in the west, the Liberal margin up from 9.2% to 12.7%.

Southern River

The Liberal margin in Southern River is cut from 17.0% to 10.9% as the electorate loses parts of Canning Vale but gains areas around Gosnells.

Swan Hills

The growth centre of Ellenbrook was always set to creat difficulties for the current redistribution. Ellenbrook is currently divided between Swan Hills and West Swan but has now been united within Swan Hills. With this configuration, it was not possible to keep all the communities along the Great Eastern Highway within a single electorate, and several areas have been transferred out of Swan Hills into Darling Range and Kalamunda. As the map below shows, only a small area has been added to the electorate, but this area consists entirely of suburban housing. To balance these numbers, much larger areas of less densly populated territory has been removed from the electorate.

Thornlie

Wanneroo

Warren-Blackwood

West Swan

West Swan previously included Ballajura with parts of Ellenbrook. Uniting Ellenbrook in Swan Hills has seen West Swan re-fashioned into a very oddly shaped electorate. The electorate is composed of a strange collection of fringe suburbs running from Toodyay Road through Middle Swan to Ballajura, then around the back of Lansdale and Wanneroo to include Banksia Grove on the northern edge of the metropolitan area.

The solution adopted for northern and north-eastern Perth has been to minimise change for electorates south of a line from Midland to Hillarys, but this has concentrated change north of this line with a general anti-clockwise rotation of electoral boundaries as excess electoral numbers have been shifted across the metropolitan fringe from the Swan Hills to Butler and Ocean Reef.

Willagee

Willagee undergoes major changes, losing Labor areas in the west to Fremantle, replaced by Liberal voting territory further east. The Labor margin is cut from 10.6% to 2.5%.